10. Rational Psychopharmacology

Dr. Laura Roberts interviews Dr. Paul Putman, the author of Rational Psychopharmacology: A Book of Clinical Skills. Rational Psychopharmacology is designed to advance practitioner's clinical knowledge, methodical assessment expertise, and diagnostic sophistication. Unlike other psychopharmacology books, this guide transcends lists and tables of dosages and side effects, instructing the reader in the reasoning that undergirds treatment decisions.  

The podcast includes discussions about

Why the psychiatric community needed a book of this nature.

The uses of medicines, supplements, and lifestyle issues in treating patients. 

Misunderstanding the term rational psychopharmacology

The difference the book will make in a practitioners approach to patient care

Effects of COVID-19 infection on mental health

Self-discovery during the writing process

Laura Weiss Roberts, M.D., M.A., is Chairman and a Katharine Dexter McCormick and Stanley McCormick Memorial Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California.

H. Paul Putman III, MD is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, a member and former Laughlin Fellow of the American College of Psychiatrists (ACP), and past President of the Central (now American) Neuropsychiatric Association. Board Certified in General Psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, Dr. Putman graduated from Austin College in Sherman, Texas, received his MD at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, and completed his internship and residency in General Psychiatry at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, where he was Chief Resident.

A practicing psychiatrist for over thirty years, he has also performed Phase I-IV studies in psychopharmacology, published in peer-reviewed journals, served as a supervisor for the Austin Graduate Medical Education/UT Medical Branch Residency Program in Psychiatry, and lectured and consulted regularly on psychiatric diagnoses and practice, with particular focus on mood and anxiety disorders. He currently chairs the Committee for Continuing Medical Education of the ACP and writes and lectures full-time.